Nope. Yesterday they began their first markup hearing on the bill, prompting Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to observe: “This is the most incredible markup I’ve ever seen in my entire time at the United States Senate and in Congress. It is a joke if we run through this stack of papers here.”

The sorry state of our nation’s health care system is no laughing matter. Serious reform is needed. But we should be honest about which direction different types of reforms will take our country. To that end, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner has written an open letter to the President and Congress on health care. First, Feulner pierces President Obama’s health care rhetoric:

If you like your health care package you can keep it: This assertion is difficult to square with the facts. The President says that a “public option”—a government plan—would just be one of many health care plans that Americans could select. In fact, a public plan will lead many employers to drop private health coverage for their workers and dump them into the public plan—just as many employers in the 1990s pushed their workers into cheaper managed care plans. According to independent analyses, as many as 119 million Americans could end up in a public plan. This is hardly letting people keep what they have. And many in Congress are eager to expand a public plan, with tight rules on what your doctor can do and how much he or she will be paid. Congress can do that because it will be both the “umpire” who sets the rules and the “team owner” of the public plan. There will be no “level-playing field.” We believe a public option will toll a death knell for private plans.

The end goal is not a single payer system: This is another Washington euphemism that confuses people. Let us all be clear: The “single payer” here is Uncle Sam, using taxpayers’ money, and not just paying the bills but calling the shots and deciding what care every American will get—or not get. The inclusion of a public option is nothing more than a Trojan horse. The architects of the President’s proposals, and the sponsors of his proposals on Capitol Hill, know that once a government plan is in place, private insurance companies will be eventually run out of business. The government already owns a major bank and auto company; we shouldn’t hand over the medical industry as well.

The proposals are deficit-neutral: The President also asserts that a government system will be fully financed. This is a stunning untruth. Analysts, including the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office–Congress’s own watchdog–have issued preliminary estimates that the cost could be high as $2 trillion over 10 years, with most of that borrowed money. Even squeezing Medicare payments and adding new tax revenue will not pay for the massive burden this plan would put on American families. And current congressional proposals would still leave millions without insurance. Washington always says that new costs will be paid by savings elsewhere, but these phantom savings never materialize. These new costs will be borne by American families.

Give families control of their health care: We need to let families—not the government—control decisions so they can choose the coverage they want. For this to happen private health insurance needs to be portable—that is, owned by Americans so they can take their package from job to job. The health care system we have today was conceived in the era of World War II, when many Americans worked for the same company all their lives. As we know, that is not the case today. The President has acknowledged this. But we do not need a public plan, or mandates on businesses, to have portability. We need changes in rules and the removal of tax penalties to allow families real choice and ownership.

Reform the tax system: For portability to become reality, we need to reform the tax system. Right now, families can get a tax break for their insurance only if they hand over control of their insurance to their boss, and leave their plan behind if they change jobs. That needs to change. We need to provide the same tax relief to families wherever they choose to get their plan. In that world of empowered families, plans would have to compete to satisfy them, not compete to cut costs for employers.

Bring on competition: Americans will get quality health care only with the mechanism that has given us quality in all other aspects of life: competition. The way to get quality care in America is to have insurers compete to satisfy families in an insurance market, one that provides transparent information, ease of delivery and quick results, and which is fair to families and their doctors. Members of Congress pick and choose plans in such a market. The rest of America should also have that right.

Feulner concludes: “These are some of our remedies to our nation’s health care system. There are other free market ideas that also warrant consideration. We call on the President and Congress to widen the conversation. Let the debate truly begin.”

Quick Hits:

Today’s New York Times poll shows “President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit” and “is seen as ineffective on the economy” while today’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows 69% of Americans “are concerned about the increased government intervention into the economy.”

Well stated. Thank you so much for the work that you do. People in the US should look at WI's Badger Care which is a public health plan that was originally intended for children and the poor which has burgeoned into a monster if they want a micro example of what will happen if the government is allowed to rape and own the medical industry like they have the auto and financial industries.

Equally important and another issue that your challenge of "Let the Debate Begin!!" needs to happen is the Global Warming agenda.

National health care is coming as one of President Obama's promises of change. So Americans can brace themselves for denial of care when bureaucrats decide that their remaining life span, quality of life (as seen by bureaucrats), or sheer cost make it inconvenient to keep them alive.

From the UK Daily Mail:

Thousands of patients with terminal cancer were dealt a blow last night after a decision was made to deny them life prolonging drugs.

The Government's rationing body said two drugs for advanced breast cancer and a rare form of stomach cancer were too expensive for the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is expected to confirm guidance in the next few weeks that will effectively ban their use.

Don't say you haven't been warned.

The following is a letter I sent my Dad:

I have many clients from Canada who have experienced denial of care for many reasons – most of which are related to understaffing and lack of government funds. Many Canadian MD's come to work in the US because they make more money and have a better professional life. If a Canadian near the US has a significant problem that is not addressed in Canada they come to the US for health care and diagnostics. Its either that or die waiting for the work-up. The Henry Ford Medical Center is a favorite for Windsor people. The income tax rate for Canadians is 50% more or less. Their disposable income is shrinking more and more.

ABC – in providing a free infomercial to the Obama administration to sell its plan to ruin health care in America – may have indicated that it too is preparing for a federal government takeover.

Traditional media outlets are experiencing hard times. Senator Kerry has asked for a bail out of the Boston Globe to "preserve a diversity of opinion." Kerry's laughable statement reveals an industry that can't sell a leftist message in the free market.

ABC may be getting in line for favorable treatment. One can only imagine the ABC Prime Time lineup if Obama takes over the network. ( for a silly look at what this might look like, you can view: http://firstconservative.com/blog/political-humor… )

I oppose the Obama plan One Payer system, this will ruin my private insurance. I am a senior citizen with cancer, I know the kind of care I will receive if his plan goes, a total disaster for me and any other senior with a serious disease

Feulner is absolutely right. We don't need less private coverage, but far more. Such competition contributes to affordable care. For anyone with inadequate resources, states and counties already cover them with resident tax dollars. The purposed Kennedy-Dodd shenanigan is just that. Beltway politics is totally out-of-control. Even Obama's choice of supreme court justice is in the political power play mindset. Forget about any objective assessment. It's all about the demagogues' power grab. It's shameful to say the least. Personally, I see it as a flagrant violation of our founding principles. If I had my way, I'd impeach the whole lot. Signed, one fed up Texan.

A handful of government employees, endowed with questionable intelligence, have seized control of the automobile industry; control over America's financial institutions; have granted to groups of labor unions privileges over and above constitutional rights granted to individuals; control news media; and now, American citizens are being forced to accept government control of Healthcare, yet no where has the word 'monopoly' surfaced.

How is it that private enterprise can provide needed and wanted products and service, pay dividends to investors, provide thousands upon thousands of jobs without use of tax money, but government cannot clean its long, long, long, snotty nose without billion dollar boxes of tissues?

This comment is not about Health Care but about Carbon Dioxide Sequestration. In little old Greenville, we are discovering the devious games being played by the EPA through Bettelle to our local governing entities and finally after a struggle to local citizens. It has recently been disclosed that the planning discussions for the ethanol plant, that has been in operation for over a year, included consideration of CO2 sequestration as a subsequent phase.

This information was not made public until very recently. The effort to stop any sequestration here is very well researched and should expose many adjustments to the truth by the EPA and Bettelle in a meeting on Monday June 29, 2009.

PS. I could care less if the folks in power were green with purple dots. As long as they're accountable and impartial to the individuals they serve. Oh, excuse me! I've not had their rich experiences. So I must be one of "those" ignorant white males. Believe me, I did not serve my nation to support a banana republic.

Obama justifies his health care plan based on the steep rise in health insurance cost. What are the reasons for these increases? Why not correct these problems as a first step in developing a new health care system? Health insurance has showed a dramatic increase due to the following.

1) Medical Malpractice Insurance – unjustified large settlements have driven up the cost of Malpractice insurance. Doctors and Hospitals are forced to charge more for services to recover these fees and over prescribe tests to avoid future lawsuits.

2) Medicare and Medicaid do not pay their fair share of costs. Doctors and Hospitals feel that with the cost and paperwork involved it’s not worth it. The additional cost for Medicare and Medicaid are passed onto your insurance carriers. Hospitals and Doctors must be able to make money so they increase fees to insurance carriers.

3) No one can be turned away from a hospital for an emergency. This is also another unfunded cost, which is also passed onto insurance carriers through increases in fees.

4) Medicare and Medicaid can not competitively bid drug cost. Canada has cheaper drug cost and we are prohibited from competitively bidding or buying drugs from Canada.

Therefore a good portion of the increase in medical insurance is due cost forced on your insurance carriers by the government who is not fully funding Medicare and Medicaid, who avoids tort reform because of large contribution from law firms, plus legislation that forces cost onto hospitals. Lets fix these problems first and get a handle on the real cost before we develop a universal health care system we cannot pay for.

Why can't the government start by underwriting Major Medical coverage for everyone? Perhaps starting at $5,000.00. That way, the most liability would be the starting point of the major med. For those with insurance, they would continue as it is, for others, it would mean that they would need to take care of their own everyday health needs and doctors appointments. If the government wanted to help more, than some type of voucher system for the doctor to submit for some partial payment for their services. As it is now, they get less than the full price from the insurance companies anyway. This would be similar.

Whatever healthcare plan devised by Obama,Congress, etc., it should be mandatory for them to fall under the same plan. Also they need to be taxed on this benefit. Hmmm, maybe they'll just drop this brainstorm. T. Marti

Ed, I agree that your ideas would represent bipartisan reform but what about the doctors? They spend a significant amount of time and money to become licensed to practice medicine and on top of that they are forced to pay HUGE med mal premiums. Tort reform needs to be a TOP priority in an attempt to allow physicians NOT to have to practice defensive medicine so as to not worry about being sued. Every extra test, MRI, CT scan, etc that is ordered in an attempt to prevent a future lawsuit adds significantly to the rising healthcare costs. If the doctors did not have to pay so much in med mal premiums, they might be inclined to lower the rates that they charge patients. Without tort reform, don't expect the doctors to swallow the idea of lower charges in the face of rising expenses. Our bright people in this country will no longer go into medicine and we all know that finance is no longer a lucrative career path under this administration.

It is truly sad that some people have been duped into believing our destiny is in the hands of Obama.

The survival of the USA is not in the hands of the president nor should it ever be. Anyone who is aware of even one shred of history knows that Congress and the president are not gods or even angels or magicians, they are legislators with an agenda.

When people start believing salvation is not in their own hands and have given over their self preservation to the endorsement of those that have an agenda to steal more value of each and every person in America to inflate their governmental control on that value, they have accepted slavery by choice.

When men debate a cause and the one that defends liberty and freedom wants socialism and its dictators and authors to fail, is accused of being unpatriotic, one must wonder when the socialist ever proved they were good enough to support, over Americanism in the first place.

The ability to debate methodology and paths that best suit liberty and freedom are the hall mark of our great nations progress. The substitute of willful compliance to servitude at the hands of socialist and Marxist that demand we comply to THEIR will, and their supporters who want to be enslaved by a system that takes more than it gives, was at one time foreign to Americans and their quest for human respect and coveted self declaration of ones worth!

To hope that Obama fails is to hope America survives as the great nation of inspired elevation of individual advancement fostered from a will to succeed as a free nation with a government that respects that freedom and not one that takes it away and suppresses it with dictated government approved values and judgment.

The current administration and trends across America are planting the seeds of false hope, deception and debt to the man. This is quickly become a socialistic enclave dictated by a small minority of fascist leaders bent on taking from America their will, their individual rights and forcing communal burden by making all men serve the will of the elitists in charge.

I just wonder if America can survive this administration as the choices to succeed are become wholly dependent on who wins an audience with the government. The idea of printing value from th Treasury and pretending that the ability to support that value must come from the peasantry who toil every day trying to make a life seems to allude the throngs of worshipers to the Obama doctrine.

Printed money will only run out when the ink becomes scarce, however sustained value and societal security come from HUMAN EFFORT. Once the human effort becomes negated by government burden and debt you will have neither value or security and guns will become the predominant defense of life.

Apparently the worshiping throngs have never read any current or past history on the matters of government destruction of societal value and how it collapses morality and the desire to improve ones state of existence.

Oy veh! The government can't run anything,all they can do is to latch on to something then proceed to destroy it. Let's see, postal service,social security,medicare/medicad,amtrack and the list goes on and on. Big Teddy and the gang just figure we are all too stupid to get along on our own,so they,the all knowing,all powerful self serving members of congress will guide us and light the way. And of course boys and girls it's gonna cost us dearly but what do they care,it's not thier money being flushed down the tube nor will any legislation apply to them. This is not a real plan,real plans take time and thought which is an alien concept to these morons.

And Komrade Ken, any reasonable patriotic American

would also want your commie leader to fail. It's obvious that you don't care about the Constitution

Thank you for your article on Obama's socialized health care. If the Fair Tax was implemented the taxpayers and employers in this country could afford to pay for our health care. Health care in the US is the best in the world. It is costly and worth it. The FREE MARKET works if you let it.(It also means recipients must work!) If it is socialized the quality of health care will be undermined as well as limiting access to health care. Gov. does NOT do a good job at running business. That is NOT their function. Our Gov. run education system is amoung the worst in the world. We are paying for substandard agencies. We must NOT add health care to it. Once the Gov. is involved the doors are wide open to waste and fraud. There is NO accountability with Gov. run health care.If you get substandard service there is no recourse. NOT WITH MY TAX DOLLARS! This administration must be stopped.

When a salesman tries to fast talk you into buying his product, BEWARE! Know that he is trying to fool you, con you, cheat you. Obama, the "Flim Flam Man" does exactly this and he is NOT to be trusted!

And why does everybody try to either accomodate or accept whatever he proposes? Like the advice re. drugs, why can't the opposition "Just say 'no'"

Obama does not want to "fix" anything; he wants to destroy or dismantale any and every thing that is outside the Socialistic realm. and that includes the Constitution of the United States! The man is a liar extraordinaire. Looking at everything he has said and done, leads me to believe he doesn't like AMERICA!

I don't hear any real outcry from moderates and conservatives. He has them all afraid like Hitler and Mussolini did in their fascist/socialist governments.

People need to stand up to him and unmask him. Beneath his charm is a villain.

As of right now the uninsured have to wait at the emergency room but they get the same care as everyone else. What the Obama administration wants to do is to make everyone have equal access to medical care.

That doesn't mean that those who were uninsured will be insured and then go to the head of the line, it means that everyone will be in line waiting for service.

Oh and by the way it will cost a whole bunch of money to get this inferior service.

Under went a Double Lung Transplant in 95 after employer based Private / Capitalism what ever the heck you want to call it refused. It was the Capitalist that said go in the corner in die..it was Government safety net that allowed me to live and get back to work.

Keep in mind I had to sell almost everything ..had to be as poor as dirt to become eligible..

When did the space ship that brought Pelosi, Frank, Obama and all his cronies land? Can't believe how they think. They're pushing everything through with no regard to what the citizens want. Hell bent on getting everything their way no matter the cost or regard to our country. They're taking over because a few people think Obama has charisma. I thought our president needed a brain. No to socialized medicine and the government controlling EVERYTHING!!!!

Dear Morning Bell: My comments on healthcare Are: #1. it should not discriminate against any american.! #2.That is exactly what it is doing.!#3. People who need help should not have to suffer-because they do not have the way/ or the means to live, without the best care in existance.#4 What is good on day one-should not disappear at some future, date with another broken fix.

For several weeks, I have been writing in my columns, blogging, and messaging news agencies about a truely viable alternative to 'nationalizing' our health care system. It is called the Alexander McGee Medical Plan. It is a co-operative program designed to offer up all the advantages of private health insurance, but above all, it is far less costly.

See my article, "Health Care-Who Cares-I Do" athttp://www.breakingnewsjournal.net for a brief history of health insurance in America and an explanation of just how the McGee plan works.

We CANNOT and we MUST NOT allow our federal government to legislate our health care for America.

First- It should be patently obvious by now for even the poor delusional sheeple that he has not a single intention of doing anything honorable that would honor and recognize this nation's successes. He is an out-and-out socialist.

Now, he wants to destroy the best healthcare system in the entire world…tyrants and dictators come HERE…folks come down from Canada…I wonder why that is when they have "National healthcare"??

Yes, it IS expensive, and the harsh reality is: the INSURANCE COMPANIES bear the major portion of blame for its being so. They keep the prices [premiums] so high as to preclude folks with limited funds from becoming insured. They prefer to insure recent grads from the Marine Corps Basic Training…not the everyday person..

So, if they disappear, they should look in their collective mirrors to see who brought about their downfall and ultimate disappearance.

If one advocates "Universal healthcare", then one is merely being a socialist; which in the real world means that you can lie about everything, but still try to force humanity into a system that has NEVER proven to be workable EXCEPT for those who think that the world owes them a living without THEIR working for it. Thses are, for the largest part, the types of sheeple who voted for this "person".

Speaking of lying, if one believes anything at all that he says [ "you do not have to be in the government's system"], then one is, indeed, a fool. He has a track record- Wright's racist "sermons", Ayers, the murderer, Pfleger, Geithner, Sotomayor, etc. Every time he is caught in a lie, the slobbering press covers it up…..he cannot be trusted with anything American.

Additionally, the untrustworthy buffoons in Congress should leave their hands off the healthcare system; and, not bow and scrape before this would-be king.

The insurance companies- the paradigms of unmitigated greed must face reality and start insuring folks who do not have a lot of money…so that they can have annual physicals…these would, in the long run, save the insurance firms a lot of money because potentially terminal diseases could be cuaght before they become terminal which is saying "costly"…to the system.

In conclusion, the choice is obvious- let this misbegotten one force government-run/mandated healthcare on us, and see the quality of care be placed in the hands of ignorant arrogant bureaucrats who do not have an inkling about medicine or leave it alone…but scare the insurance types into reality. For the many who voted for him, "obvious" is not in their vocabulary; and the obvious shall always remain a mystery for them.

i pay a little over $100.00 per month with bluecross. granted it is a catastrophic policy but at least i have the peace of mind knowing that if something serious happens to me i'll be covered. it's the policy i chose for me with no intervention from the government. that's the way it should be. doctors go to school for a very long time to achieve a level of success that will provide them with the lifestyle/whatever they are deemed to strive for being"free americans". if government dictates what coverage a person is allowed and what incomes doctors can make will lead to society of "plane janes". there will be no incentive for americas talented minds to pursue careers in medicine. 20 years from now i don't want to be told that i'm beyond my care coverage and i can go off in some field and lay down and die. i believe in capitolism and risk and reward. the achievers create for those less motivated and i believe those less motivated and unfortunate will still get better care right now than they would with a government run system.

We need to redefine the word "freedom". Freedom for what? The current health system is based on the freedom of the farmaceutical company to earn tons of billions of dollars with medications that are toxic (and in many cases have to be recalled). In the freedom of the insurance companies to provide expensive plans. Why would anyone profit from illness? Who says that the services provided by the current companies are good services? The USA rated last among the 19 most developed countries in preventable diseases! If we don't have public health services, the private companies will never turn their efforts towards educating the public and preventing illnesses. MEDICINE SHOULD NOT BE A MERCHANDISE. Whatever measure changes that primary fact will turn the nation towards real progress. You have to redefine the word Progress also. Look at the country. Roads and buildings and cars… that's not progress. The USA is responsible for 25% of the carbon emissions! Progress? A country that promotes wastelessness is not a developed country. We will have progress whenever we learn to care for each other and for the planet. We are not doing so right now. Obama is so right! And I hope that we will get a public health care option soon. It won't be perfect, but it will be good for 46 million people who can't afford premiums right now.

I find myself at a loss for what can be done to stop this Democratic controlled government that we now are faced with. I listen and read every day about the outrageous events that are occurring in the House and Senate.I watch C-Span and I am sickened. I listen to Fox news and become enraged…to a point where it is not healthy. I keep hoping the rest of the media will begin to do their jobs…But they appear to have been bought out… Our constitution is being totally ignored, new rules and laws are being made without going through the correct procedure, Obama behaves like a dictator and makes laws… that he himself …then breaks, half the country is being ignored as if we do not exist, our freedoms are being taken away from us right before our eyes and the people who are fighting this are totally dismissed or are bad mouthed by the media… and the majority of the country is doing nothing to stop it. The American people do not know what they have… but they will wake one day crying..once it is lost. Not only will our freedoms be gone but our right to privacy will also be totally invaded by the government. We will be controlled by the government, told what to eat, what we can buy, how much heat or air conditioning we can use, how much we will be paid, if we can have a certain medical procedure or not, what medication we will be allowed to have, if we can have credit or not…and freedom of speech…well that can be kissed goodbye- it will be gone…the list of losses and measures of controll that we will have to live with is endless… I fear we will begin to look like the middle east… I do not know how to fight against all that is happening. I have called and written my congressmen, participated in sending letters to the white house concerning taxation without representation among other things, am planning on attending the tea parties that are occurring in my area…but all of this is to no avail. I am scared to death and feel totally helpless for the first time in my life. It seems that the IQ of half the American people has suddenly dropped to zero…nothing can be done at this point…2010 is when we have somewhat of a chance to make some changes…However, I feel the vote may be rigged and the democrats may still prevail…illegally…So sad to see the demise of my country..

To Nancy Robards from TX and all who espouse the ideology of the redistribution of wealth and the political game of picking winners and losers: I'll be more than happy to send you and those of your political persuasion my tax bills, my utility bills, my insurance premiums and, most importantly, my health care bills so you can pay them out of your generousity. In fact I think the present administration should publish a list (after all they will have complete access to our health records and every other piece of private information regarding each of us)and distribute it to everyone like you. We can have a buddy system. My bills for payment will be sent to you for payment and I get a FREE PASS. Sound familiar? It's already happening. Please read Ben C.'s comments from Ann Arbor, MI because he is completely correct. One of my sons is a practicing physician and he has had the same experiences with those coming from CA who cannot get needed treatment IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. Common sense dictates that there are legitimate reasons as to why this is occurring on a regular basis. It's because national health care doesn't work. Wake up!

We need to redefine the word "freedom". Freedom for what? The current health system is based on the freedom of the farmaceutical company to earn tons of billions of dollars with medications that are toxic (and in many cases have to be recalled). In the freedom of the insurance companies to provide expensive plans. Why would anyone profit from illness? Who says that the services provided by the current companies are good services? The USA rated last among the 19 most developed countries in preventable diseases! If we don't have public health services, the private companies will never turn their efforts towards educating the public and preventing illnesses. MEDICINE SHOULD NOT BE A MERCHANDISE. Whatever measure changes that primary fact will turn the nation towards real progress. You have to redefine the word Progress also. Look at the country. Roads and buildings and cars… that's not progress. The USA is responsible for 25% of the carbon emissions! Progress? A country that promotes wastefulness is not a developed country. We will have progress whenever we learn to care for each other and for the planet. We are not doing so right now. Obama is so right! And I hope that we will get a public health care option soon. It won't be perfect, but it will be good for 46 million people who can't afford premiums right now.

Ken Jarvis clearly you want America to fail… you only believe what the president wants you to believe.

Maria, if pharmaceuticals are corrupting or poisoning the consumer, then your government run FDA is failing you. If private insurance companies are over charging or denying service, again, the government is failing you. The consumer has the choice to inform if a service is good or not, honest or dishonest. Their is no CHOICE when anything is run by government. Plenty of neglect and failure. If you research you will note the endless corruption of government run of EVERYTHING.

You give no credit to freedom as you seem to imply a misunderstanding. Freedom to me in the text you wrote is from government. If you don't have the strength to live for yourself and live to depend on government (other peoples money), shows you to be weak, living w/out freedom. Take on independence. Be reliable to yourself and children you bring into the world. Know that every freedom of choice leads to consequence and be prepared to hold yourself accountable under civil law. That's what America has been about the strength of human lives doing for themselves. Are you familiar with the line "ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country"? I call this to mean, don't be a burden (cost) to the government (country), be an asset to the country. Live free and independently.

Along with today's government, seems you and Ken Jarvis all have one thing in common, appease the weak, when you and government could be inspiring strength…just another failure.

If we provided a tax credit or another means for allowing each citizen to spend more of their money toward health care, we could cover everyone at 1/10 of the total cost. Let's say that each uninsured person received a credit of $5,000 dollars to purchase health care through a private insurer. Since there are approximately 39,000,000 people that need coverage, this would cost 185,000,000,000. That is a lot fewer dollars than what is currently being proposed. It would also allow the people to have control of what they choose.

Just think of all the fun we have when we deal with government run DMV, Social Security, Medicare/Medi-Caid (Cal her in California), the IRS. Long lines, incompetent employees (who can not be fired). Now multiply that my many sick people waiting in Dr's. offices. Been to an Emergency Room lately?? It will be worse than that. You don't need to be waiting hours and hours to see a Dr. when you are sick. Obama is trying to ramrod through as much as he can. Wake up people. The inmates are running the asylum. The next thing to come will be an Elder Viability Act. Baby boomers will be deemed to much of a strain on the system and think of Soylent Green. If Obama gets his way be very afraid.

The national public plan will replace private insurance. This is a poor choice. Private insurance companies should be able to issue national health plans. This would allow individuals to shop for insurance. Now it is limited to the state you live in and if you move you need to replace your insurance. If your health changes you might not be able to find insurance.

Americans are being duped. The demos want you to believe that the supposed "46 million without health insurance" can't get medical care. That is a flat out lie. There is a big difference between health insurance and medical care. The uninsured get medical care. Never forget that……..One other thing. Why the big rush to establish what is, in effect, socialized medicine?

Obama knows that the longer it takes the more the general public will realize that "guvment inshuns" ain't what it is cracked up to be.

Please tell me where in the US constitution it says health is the power of the federal government. They already choose what is charitable in an unconstitutional manner. Look at the mess they made in education, what is Cleveland's graduation rate? The postal service is a govt monopoly how much do they lose every year?

Amtrack is another monopoly and they make how much? They can't even break even with no competition, and you want to give them more unconstitutional power?????? Are you that gullible to believe they will do a good job for the first time now? Those things not listed as a federal power belong to the state or the people. Please take the time to read – legislative section 8 and the tenth amendment in your constitution. This country is a republic, and the law that is supposed to rule is the constitution, the farther we drift the worse it gets. Or haven't you noticed?

I am heartened by the majority on this site who are fed up with the present administration in Washington. It gives me hope that there are some out there who are informed about their rights. I live in a blue state & an even bluer city where people are for the most part apathetic & regard me as a lunatic when I express my views, which are in complete agreement with the majority here. When I do meet people with like views, they seem afraid to admit it & I have heard some say, "there's nothing we can do". Pretty sad commentary. I say we should band together & fight Obama's rapid drive toward socialism before it is too late.

It is scaring that Obama is going to completely make a mess of our present healthcare system! Obama and his administration should first see how they can fix Medicare, and only after Medicare is finally in the black, can they possible introduce a healthcare plan. Maria D

[…] In an open letter to the President and members of Congress, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner offers a robust rebuttal to the administration’s proposed big-government health care reforms. […]

If Mr. O in the White House thinks he can shovel this pile of dung down our throats, he is sadly mistaken. We have had enough of the "Insanity Administration" and need to force change by letting the politicians know, WE ARE THEIR EMPLOYERS and they have dishonored our trust. They will NOT have a job if they do not stop the insanity. Write, phone, email, fax and hound your representatives. Let them know we won't go quietly into the night, we are coming. We are Americans and they have been put on notice.

When you are dying from a simple case of the flu because Mr. Obama had deemed it un-necessary for you to get a flu shot or even have them available and you are not permitted to visit the doctor unless you have no pulse, praise be your vision of Nationalized Health Care.

You are so quick to jump on the band wagon of the "Insanity Administration", yet if you were the one being denied medical care you would be screaming at the top of your lungs.

Be assured Maria, no one in this country at this time is denied medical treatment/care. There is a HUGE difference between medical treatment and medical insurance. The current administration wants you to believe they are one and the same, they are not.

And why is Obama so rushed to push down our throats all this change? It is because the longer he is in office telling lies, the quicker we will begin to fight back. He needs everything done now, right now. According to him, all is an emergency and swift action is needed. IT IS NOT!

One final thought. Whatever health care morphs into, we must insist the government, inclusive of the President, use the same system they have created for the people of the United States.

[…] “The answer: Their surprise that Pawlenty actually made cuts to things like social services, local government aid, K-12 education and higher education. But Pawlenty did everything but smoke signal and telegraph what he was going to do long before the session ended in infamy and shame when the DFL-controlled Legislature decided to abdicate its responsibility and not pass a balanced budget, leaving state government’s future in one lame-duck governor’s hands.”The Heritage Foundation rebuts The Congresses take on health Care Reform […]

Ed, thank you for your letter and research. I am 69 years old and what we as a country do not need the government "screwing" up another program! They need to first concentrate on fixing Social Security. I have been paying into that (and still am since I am still working)for over 51 years and don't have much to show for it because the government has botched it up by spending my SS taxes on other programs instead of setting it aside for me and others at "retirement".

I don't want to see the government take more of our money to screw up another program.

If we have 15% – 20% of the people in this country that do not have health care, then we do need to do something. The first thing is to determine how many of those people are citizens and just address their needs, not the needs of the illegal aliens. And the second thing we need to do is reallocate some of the massive funds being already frivolously spent in other areas (the stimulus package, for example). Why should we upend 85% of the people and our grandchildren's future for a problem that exists for the other 15%…..but that does seem to be how our government operates. Wake up America.

If you make the rules, and then play in the game, you win. President Obama wants to control everything in the health care field by making the rules and have the government provide the only option. Government wins!!

You cannot sue the government. And if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until you get "FREE" government health care with its nightmare of bureaucracy and secrecy.

Do you like rationed death care? Every other government that has socialized health care rations health care away from those who truly need it (the elderly, the very young, and the very sick) in order to "CUT COSTS". It is a death sentence for the persons who really need health care.

Do you want to see how the system of government health care would look like for everyone? Look at medicare and medicaid without private options and you see the problems very quickly.

Fewer doctors, nurses and hospitals because the government fails to adequately pay for their services. Lack of new technology and medicines because they are considered nonstandard or experimental. Tens of millions who never contributed one penny will now be getting free health care.

But the real kicker is this. If the government provides all health care, then they are capable of withholding health care, even based on political disagreements. Who uses the IRS to violate their political opponents rights? Politicians do.

This is not just a bad idea; it is an evil and insidious idea to control every individual in this country. That is, of course, exactly what the Obama administration has pursued from the very first day in office.

Why doesn't Heritage promote stopping illegal's children from being U.S. citizens and qualifying for benefits, as well as illegals from receiving benefits which taxpayers pay for; cutting the waste in the health care system and raising the tax for medicare to cover costs for our citizens. We can afford to pay for wars and benefits for unqualified people but fail to provide benefits for the citizens who have paid their entire life into the system. Let's not re-invent the wheel, simply fix it and I don't hear anyone addressing the problem except talking about it.

Every day the newspapers seem to bring new crises that must be addressed immediately, with new legislation hastely contrived, rapidly pushed through committee and passed by party vote. The stimulus package or our economy would collapse, the implosion of the financial industry and its bailouts, the hand over of Chrysler to the unions, the proposed re-regulation and oversight of all companies judged 'too big to fail', and now the health insurance crisis, shortly to be followed by the crisis in global warming, and the fairness doctrine in radio, and 'free choice' in union elections. All spoon fed by fear and sugar coated platitudes to quickly close the deal before the law is written or read, let alone understood. All resulting in control by the central government, though they are forced into these situations, rather than by choice, so they say. Whether these actions solve the problem at hand to the trashing our culture, the traditions of our society, and disregard of our constitution, is secondary to those whose overarching goal is the federal government taking control. This race to socialism, and it is socialism, placing more power, more control in central government means more loss of our personal liberties. So said Thomas Jefferson. Have all our democratic friends been so blinded by the hard left that they have lost their vision of what America was and why we were great??

Thank you for pointing out that the "fair" government competition President Obama mentioned will not be fair in any sense. I suppose he believes that anything the government does is fair compared to what the evil market with consumer and producer choice does.

Also, you might have mentioned that the cost savings the president referred to are not cost savings at all. Just rationing and price controls mainly.

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